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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Diablo 3 - Kanai's Cube - FAQ by gvandale

I
see a lot of questions popping up about Kanai's Cube since its release,
so I am hoping to be able to put together a list of common questions,
along with helpful information regarding the cube.

What is Kanai's Cube? Kanai's Cube was introduced in Patch 2.3, and is the spiritual successor to Diablo 2's Horadric Cube.

What can the cube do? All sorts of stuff, from
extracting legendary powers to upgrading rares into legendaries. I will
get into the specifics of each recipe later, but for now just realize
that the cube is a powerful tool.

Does the cube take up stash space? No, the cube is now part of the town center along with the other artisans (blacksmith, jeweler, etc.).

Where do I find the Cube? The cube is in a new
area of Act 3. In order to obtain the item you must make your way
through the first floor of the "Ruins of Sescheron", and finally get to
the second zone called the "Elder Sanctum". In this second zone you
will find the "Tomb of King Kanai", at which point a small scripted
event takes place and you will have the cube and its artisan unlocked in
town.

The cube is available to both Season and Non-Season players.

While it has not been confirmed how the transition will occur at
the end of Season 4, it is reasonably safe to assume that the stored
cube powers will be handled much in the same way that artisan
levels/plans are - once the season ends it automatically rolls over to
your non-season gear.

edit: It has been confirmed that the extracted powers will roll over to non-season as other artisans's are. source

When putting in a stack of items, the cube is smart enough to
only use what it needs. If a recipe calls for (5) Death's Breath, and
you place a stack of (50), you will have (45) back in your inventory
when you complete the recipe.

Kanai's Cube is not available to PS3 and XBox360 console users.

Extracting Legendary Powers - an in-depth look.

So the first recipe everyone loves about the cube is the "Archive
of Tal Rasha". This recipe allows you to extract a legendary power
from an item, in turn destroying the item itself. In order to do this,
you must have (1) of each of the new Legendary Crafting Mats (each act
gives a new material in their bounty cache's, (1) Legendary item with a
Legendary Affix you wish to remove, and (5) Death's Breath.

You are allowed to have an active Weapon Slot, Armor Slot, and
Jewelry Slot. Weapons include all items that are equipped in your hands
(weapons, off-hands, and shields). Armor includes all armor, so you
can choose one item from Helmet, Shoulders, Gloves, Pants, Boots, Belt,
Chest, and Bracers. Jewelry includes Amulets and Rings, so you must
choose between a 3rd ring or 2nd amulet essentially.

Note that this only applies to legendaries, and you cannot
extract a set item in lieu of equipping said item. Example: you cannot
extract Zuni's Pants in the hopes that you would no longer have to equip
them to get the set bonus. For further clarification, set items that have legendary affixes such as Krelm's Belt
can have their legendary affix extracted...but you cannot gain the
benefit of the set. So if you use the belt's power in the cube, and
equip the bracers, you do not get the set bonus.

Now, lets say you want to extract the legendary power from The Furnace
which is "Increases Damage Against Elites by 40-50%". The first thing
to know is that no matter the value of the item you put in, the power
extracted will always be at its max. So if your Furnace only rolled 40%
elite damage, the ability will extract at 50%. Ok, so as stated above,
place your Furnace, (1) each of the legendary act specific mats, and
(5) deaths breaths in the cube and hit "Transmute". You will get a
warning that you are about to destroy your item, that's ok - hit "OK".

Now that the Furnace's power has been extracted, you need to
"equip" it. Within the cube GUI, click the icon marked with a sword (you can see it here).
This opens up a book of all the available items you can extract, so
rifle through the pages and select The Furnace. Once you have, the
image of the sword you clicked on will now show the image of The
Furnace. If you want to verify that a specific power is activated, you
can open up the details screen in your inventory and scroll to the
bottom - it will now show any active attributes coming from Kanai's
Cube.

There are some items that cannot have their legendary power
extracted such as The Corrupted Ashbringer, The Hellfire Amulet, and
Ancestors Grace.

Also of note, you cannot utilize two of the same power. In the
example of The Furnace, if you have one equipped on your character, and
select The Furnace in your cube, you will not get 2x bonus.

Extracted powers work from any legendary item at any level. So
if you find a Starmetal Kukri at level 45, it is no longer useless.
Save it, and you can extract that very awesome power once you have the
cube and the mats.

Extracting the Ring of Royal Grandeur is the same as wearing one
(again you can't wear one and have one in the cube). This opens up
great gearing options for the 2x ring slots you now have.

Extracted powers are only available to characters that could
normally utilize the original item. A barbarian could not use a power
from a monk daibo.

Lastly, once you have extracted a power it is now available to
all characters you have. If your WD extracted The Furnace in the above
example, your Monk could equip that passive as well.

Reforging Legendary Items

The next recipe is called "The Law of Kulle", it allows you to
reroll the stats on a legendary item - with the added bonus that the
reroll can result in an Ancient Legendary. The odds to reroll Ancient
are 1/10.

Place all of the above items in your cube, hit transmute, and watch that rare transform into a legendary!

Great uses for this are on weapons, jewelry, and Templar relics.
Early in Season 4 I was able to turn a bunch of Rare Ceremonial Knives I
had picked up off the ground into an Ancient Dagger of Darts (I
equipped this), and also a Starmetal Kukri (I extracted this power). I
was also able to craft a bunch of Templar relics and then upgrade them,
finally getting the "cannot die" relic I wanted.

The rare item that goes into the cube can be purchased from a vendor, found in monster loot, or crafted at the blacksmith.

Converting a Set Item

We have all had this issue - you have 5/6 of a set and the drops
you get keep giving you gloves and not the damn item you NEED. The
"Skill of Nilfur" recipe allows you to take a set item and convert it to
a different item from that set. Keep getting Zuni's gloves and not
boots? Use this recipe to convert that glove into another item from the
set. Note This only works on sets of 3 or more pieces, and cannot produce an Ancient Set item.

The recipe is (1) Set Item, (10) Death's Breath, and (10)
Forgotten Souls. Place these in your cube, hit transmute, and pray that
the RNGod's are smiling upon you.

Example of how this works: You need Zunimassa's Boots, and you
have an extra pair of Zunimassa's gloves. Place the extra set of
gloves, along with (10) each Death's Breath and Forgotten Souls into the
cube, hit transmute. If you get the boots, GREAT, if not just load
another (10) materials and transmute again.

Removing Level Requirement

While not that great for softcore players, this could be a great
benefit to Hardcore players. The "Work of Cathan" recipe allows you to
remove the level requirement of any gear item by transmuting (1) item of
any type, and (1) rank 25 or higher Gem of Ease.

This will consume the Gem of Ease.

Converting Gem Types

Running out of Topaz's? You can now cube all those useless
Rubies using the "Darkness of Radament" recipe. This recipe is capped
at 9 gems per "roll", and requires a Gem Essence (sold by Squirt in A2).

The recipe is (9) Gems of the same type/quality, and (1) Gem
Essence (of the type of gem you want). Hit transmute and voila, you
have a new stack of gems.

An example: You have 1000 Imperial Amethyst's, but really need
more Emeralds. Go to Act 2 and purchase the Emerald Gem Essence from
Squirt. Throw in your cube the amethysts, and the essence - hit
transmute and receive your Imperial Emeralds.

Gem Essence costs 500,000 gold.

Converting Crafting Materials

Similar to the gem conversion, this one really helps with
collecting specific materials. I know in previous seasons I could never
have enough blue/white mats while I would be swimming in yellows. The
"Anger of Iben Fahd" recipe now invalidates this issue.

The recipe is (100) crafting materials (either white, blue, or
yellow), (1) item of the material quality you want to receive, and (1)
Death's Breath.

An example: I need more Arcane Dusts (blue), and have a TON of
Veiled Crystals (yellow). I would put (100) veiled crystals, (1) blue
item (sword as an example), and (1) Death's Breath into the cube. Hit
transmute and receive (100) Arcane Dust. note: the item you use in the cube can be crafted, purchased, or found while playing.

Two, Not-So-Secret, Secret Recipes

Portal to "Not the Cow Level". Simply put a Bovine Bardiche into the cube, hit transmute, and open a portal to the "Not the Cow Level".

You can only open one Cow Portal per game. If you see the portal
open in town, you have to remake the game in order to get a new portal
open. Trying the recipe when there is already a portal open will result
in a "failed to transmute" message.

Portal to Greed's Realm Another simple recipe. Put a Puzzle Ring into the cube, hit transmute, and open a portal to "Greed's Realm".

You can only open one Greed's Realm Portal per game. If you see the
portal open in town, you have to remake the game in order to get a new
portal open. Trying the recipe when there is already a portal open will
result in a "failed to transmute" message.

Act Specific Legendary Materials

Bounties have been changed a bit in patch 2.3. The major change is the rotating "bonus" act and how it effects material drops.

When you start a new game in adventure mode, you will notice on
the map that one of the acts is now labeled "Bonus". If you complete
all the bounties in this act, before any other act, you will receive a
second "bonus" cache along with the standard cache. Once this is done,
the bonus act randomly changes to a different act.

It is now beneficial to run all 5 acts in the sequence the game
chooses the "bonus" acts to maximize the amount of materials you earn

The bonus cache can also drop a legendary item.

Blood Shards are no longer awarded for completing the individual bounty, rather they are only given in the bonus cache.

Horadric Caches will now contain two legendary/set crafting
recipes. This is a great way to fill out your artisans quickly at the
start of a season.

There are five act specific legendary crafting materials. These
are required for legendary/set crafting at the blacksmith, as well as
for many of the Kanai's Cube recipes.